Afghanistan vs England, 13th Match at Delhi, World Cup 2023, Oct 15 2023 - Match Result

10pm And....breathe. A monumental win for Afghanistan, a huge wake-up call for England. Three games in, and both teams have two points. Still not out of the hunt, but neither has much margin for error left. England have been in such situations before, most recently at the T20 World Cup after they lost to Ireland. But the road does get tougher for them, with a clash against South Africa awaiting next Saturday. Afghanistan's next game, meanwhile, takes them to Chennai, where they will face New Zealand, and on the back of this win, Afghanistan will fancy their chances again.

But before all of that, there is the small matter of Australia, currently bottom of the table, taking on Sri Lanka, third from bottom, tomorrow. Do join us for that game, but for tonight, this is me (Shashwat) signing off on behalf of Chandan, Miller and everyone else at ESPNcricinfo. Goodbye and take care!

Hashmatullah Shahidi, Afghanistan captain: (On how big a win this is) I am quite happy and all my teammates are happy. This was the best win. The confidence will be there for the next game and the whole country will be happy and proud with this win. (On the opening partnership) They get a lot of credit (for the win today). Unfortunately, we had back-to-back wickets again today. We have to think about that. We had a good start and credit goes to Gurbaz for that. (On Ikram) He was with us from last two years but did not get too many chances. Me and the coach believed in him and we really appreciate his effort. (On Mujeeb being an all-rounder) I think, yes. Against Pakistan in Sri Lanka, he batted beautifully. Today, he scored important runs for us. (On the spinners) We have to score runs for that (for them to have an impact). The whole world knows how good they are. I am very proud of them today. (On the wickets the pacers took) Fazal started very well, along with Mujeeb. That (Bairstow) wicket was very important. I realised the wicket was not supporting the batters when batting against the spinners. When I went to the pavilion, I felt 280-290 would be enough on this track. (Message to the fans) The belief is there, the trust is there and the talent is also there. Last couple of games, we did not finish well. Looking forward to the rest of the tournament. Hopefully we can be positive. This was the first win for us (since 2015 in the World Cup) but not the last one.

Jos Buttler, England captain: (On England's early bowling) It was disappointing, having won the toss and elected to bowl. Missing the first ball down the leg side sort of set the tone. Congratulations to Afghanistan, they outplayed us today. (On what they could have done differently) It was a bit of bad execution, both with the bat and the ball. It was not at the level we wanted it to be consistently enough. That was the area where we lost the game. (On Afghanistan's bowling attack) They have a really skilful attack. The dew did not come in as much as we expected. The ball held up and there was indifferent bounce. They kept the stumps in play and we were not quite good enough today. (On how they plan to recover) You got to let these defeats hurt. Let it hurt, try to figure out where we need to get better. Lots of resilience in the group, lots of characters who have been through some good times and through some tough times. (On the form of his bowlers) As a whole, we are not at the level we would like to be. In a World Cup, that is where we want to be. On the field and off it, we will be trying to put it right.

Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Player of the Match: Very proud moment to be here at the World Cup and beating the champions. Great achievement for the whole team and this is the kind of opportunity we have been working hard for. Wonderful performances by the bowlers and the batters. (On his responsibility with the new ball) As a spinner, it is pretty hard to bowl in the powerplay. But I have been working in the nets. There is not much room for error to bowl wide so I have tried to bowl wicket-to-wicket. We knew that dew will play some part and that is why I wanted to bowl in the powerplay. The ball was holding a little bit as well. Even if there was dew, I was mentally prepared. Not to give much room and bowl in the right areas. (On the batting) It is all about the management. They have been giving me confidence. I want to contribute as a lower-order batter as well, and those 25-30 runs helps the team as well. I want to continue doing that. I want to dedicate this award to the people back home, who have been affected by the earthquake. This is something we could do as a team and I could do myself as a player.

9:30pm Well, almost every World Cup fan dreaded another one-sided contest today, considering both sides' World Cup pedigree. Who would have thought, though, that Afghanistan would bundle England out for 215 and win by 69 runs. The best part is that the result, for a large chunk of this second innings, seemed inevitable, and that is perhaps the greatest praise Afghanistan can receive tonight.

Farooqi got the ball rolling with the wicket of Bairstow. Mujeeb then castled Root, before Nabi sent Malan packing. Buttler perished to a devilish Naveen in-swinger, leaving Brook to do almost all of the heavy lifting. He made a pretty decent fist of it but support was not very forthcoming, meaning that the defending champions ultimately crumbled to a shattering defeat.

England, for most parts of this run-chase, looked tentative. Afghanistan anything but. And that sort of sums up how we have gotten here. This evening in Delhi belongs to Afghanistan, and even if their World Cup campaign does not quite go to plan in the next few weeks, they will always have Delhi, and this performance that has sent shockwaves throughout the cricketing world.

Rashid to continue

200 comes up for England. Small wins, perhaps...

Topley is the last man in

Rashid swaps ends